Electrical Capacity & EV Charging for Strata Properties: A Complete Guide

Understanding peak demand management, capacity planning, and cost-saving strategies for condos and townhomes in BC

As electric vehicle adoption accelerates across British Columbia, strata councils are facing a critical question: How do we support EV charging without overwhelming our electrical infrastructure or breaking the bank? In a recent webinar, our team at Electric Asset broke down everything property managers and strata councils need to know about electrical capacity planning and EV charging solutions.

Understanding Your Building's Electrical Infrastructure

Before diving into EV charging solutions, it's essential to understand how power flows through your property.

Condo and Apartment Buildings

In a typical strata property with underground parking, electrical power follows a clear path:

1. The Grid Connection: Power from BC Hydro, Fortis BC, or New West Power connects directly to your property through high-voltage wires—no meters, no monitors, just raw power.

2. Main Transformer: This is your building's primary power source, converting high-voltage grid power into usable electricity for the entire site.

3. House Distribution: The first metered service in your building, covering common areas like elevators, hallway lighting, parkade gates, pumps, and fans. This is what the strata corporation pays for monthly.

4. Meter Stacks: Separate distribution feeding individual residential units throughout the building, with each owner paying their own electricity bill.

Each of these represents a critical control point when planning for EV charging capacity. You need adequate capacity at every level to safely support charging infrastructure.

Townhome Communities

Townhomes operate differently. Instead of power flowing vertically through floors, it spreads laterally across clusters of homes:

• Multiple townhomes (typically 4-20 units) share a single transformer

• Each unit has its own meter and electrical panel

• The shared transformer creates unique capacity challenges

• Individual owners pay their own electricity bills

The challenge? When one townhome adds an EV charger, it affects the shared transformer capacity available to all units in that cluster.

The Hidden Cost: Peak Demand Charges

Here's where many strata councils get caught off guard. In BC, you're not just paying for the electricity you consume—you're also paying for your peak demand.

How Peak Demand Works

• Energy consumption: 11-14 cents per kilowatt-hour (the blue line on your bill)

• Peak demand surcharge: $13 per kilowatt (the expensive part)

Your peak demand is the highest amount of power your building uses at any single moment during the month. Even if that peak only lasts 15 minutes, you pay the full surcharge for the entire month.

The EV Charging Impact

Here's a real-world scenario: 25 electric vehicles come home over a 2-hour window. For just 20 minutes, all 25 are plugged in and charging simultaneously. Each charger draws 8 kilowatts by default.

The result? An additional 200 kilowatts of peak demand, costing your strata $2,600 for that single month—and that's on top of the actual energy consumed to charge the vehicles.

Multiply this across months and years, and as more residents adopt EVs, the costs can become staggering. Many buildings don't notice the financial impact until they have 15-20 vehicles regularly charging, at which point the damage is already done.

Energy Management Systems: The Smart Solution

Fortunately, there's a better way. Energy Management Systems (EMS) solve both the capacity and cost challenges simultaneously.

How EMS Works

An EMS acts as an intelligent traffic controller for your building's electrical system:

1. Monitors in real-time: Constantly tracks your building's power consumption

2. Prevents peak demand spikes: Keeps usage below a predetermined threshold

3. Intelligently distributes power: Ensures all vehicles get charged without overloading the system

4. Extends charging sessions: Spreads charging across off-peak hours when needed

Using the same 25-vehicle scenario above, an EMS would throttle the chargers to prevent breaching the peak demand threshold. All vehicles still get fully charged—just more gradually over the evening and overnight hours. The result? That $2,600 monthly surcharge is completely eliminated.

Capacity Management

Beyond cost savings, EMS provides a safety net for buildings with limited capacity. Let's say your building needs 100 kilowatts to give every charger full power, but only has 87 kilowatts available. An EMS can be programmed to:

• Never exceed 87 kilowatts (safety threshold)

• Aim for 50 kilowatts (cost optimization threshold)

• Dynamically balance between these two goals

This makes EV charging possible even in buildings that would otherwise need expensive electrical upgrades.

Townhome-Specific Solutions

Townhomes require a two-tier approach:

1. EMS Home Units: Installed at each townhome's electrical panel to monitor individual usage and control the charger. These are compact "EMS lite" versions designed specifically for residential applications.

2. EMS Meter Center Controllers: Installed at the shared transformer serving each cluster of homes. This master controller monitors the collective impact of all townhomes on the shared transformer and coordinates with individual home units to prevent overload.

This networked approach ensures safety at both the individual panel level and the shared infrastructure level.

Planning for the Future

One of the biggest mistakes strata councils make is allowing the first few EV owners to install chargers without a comprehensive plan. Here's what typically happens:

• The first 3-5 installations go smoothly

• The 6th or 7th owner applies for a permit

• The city asks: "Where's your capacity study?"

• Council discovers the transformer is already at or near capacity

• All future installations are blocked until a $300,000-$400,000 upgrade is completed

The better approach? Develop an EV-ready plan early, even if you only have one or two EVs today. This ensures:

• All owners have equitable access to charging

• Infrastructure scales affordably as adoption grows

• You maximize available rebates

• You avoid costly emergency upgrades

Available Rebates in BC

Despite economic headwinds, BC still offers generous rebates for EV charging infrastructure:

EV-Ready Plan

• Rebate: Up to $3,000 (covers 75% of plan costs)

• Eligibility: Every residential strata property

Parking Stall Infrastructure

• Rebate: $600 per stall

• Maximum: $120,000 per residential strata

EV Charging Stations

• Rebate: Up to $1,400 per station during infrastructure upgrades

• Maximum: $14,000 per year per strata

• Renewal: Resets every April 1st (now in year four)

Total Potential

Up to $137,000+ in rebates available per strata property.

The best part? We handle the pre-approval application on your behalf at no cost and with no obligation. Once approved, rebates are secured for 8 months, giving you time to plan and make decisions. If you decide to postpone or cancel, there's no penalty.

Metering and Cost Recovery

A common question: "How do we bill owners for the electricity they use?"

For Condos

Since EV chargers typically connect to strata-paid power (house meter or dedicated EV meter), you need a system with built-in metering capabilities. Modern EMS solutions include Canada-grade revenue meters that:

• Track individual usage accurately

• Generate automatic monthly bills

• Provide transparent reporting for owners

• Include customer support lines for technical issues

We recommend charging a minimum of 15 cents per kilowatt-hour throughout Metro Vancouver and BC to ensure cost recovery. Councils can adjust rates higher (22-28 cents) if they want to recoup infrastructure investment costs more quickly.

For Townhomes

Since each townhome owner pays their own electricity bill, no additional billing infrastructure is typically needed. Owners can track their charging through their vehicle's app or the charger's reporting features.

Real-World Performance

We monitor hundreds of buildings and thousands of charging stations across BC. The data is clear: EMS works exceptionally well for home charging scenarios where vehicles are parked for 4+ hours daily. Owners consistently report that their vehicles are fully charged when needed, while stratas report significant savings on peak demand charges and the ability to support more chargers without infrastructure upgrades.

Getting Started

Whether you're a condo with underground parking or a townhome complex with shared transformers, the path forward involves three key steps:

1. Capacity Assessment: Understand your current electrical infrastructure and available capacity

2. EV-Ready Planning: Develop a scalable solution that serves all owners equitably

3. Rebate Application: Secure available funding before beginning installation

Every property is unique. We've conducted over 1,000 capacity studies, and the variety of configurations, constraints, and opportunities never ceases to amaze us. Some properties are ready to go with minimal adjustments. Others need creative engineering to make everything work harmoniously.

The good news? There are now 12 BC Hydro-approved EMS controllers on the market, each with different strengths suited to different applications. We're agnostic about solutions—our goal is finding the right fit for your property's specific needs.

The Bottom Line

EV adoption isn't slowing down. The question isn't whether your strata will need to address EV charging, but when and how. Properties that plan proactively will:

• Save thousands in peak demand charges

• Avoid expensive emergency upgrades

• Provide equitable access for all owners

• Maximize available rebate funding

• Future-proof their infrastructure

Those that wait risk facing capacity crises, angry owners, and limited options.

Let's Talk About Your EV Charging Needs

Ready to develop an EV charging strategy for your property? We offer complimentary capacity assessments and will handle your rebate pre-approval at no cost.

Contact Electric Asset today to schedule a consultation or try our Electric Asset GPT for instant answers to your specific questions about electrical capacity and EV charging infrastructure.

Electric Asset Inc. - Specialists in EV charging infrastructure for residential strata properties across British Columbia